AUTUMNAL MORALITIES 119 



cunning, all your knack of keeping on the 

 invisible side of the trunk, or your frolic will 

 end in sudden blackness. This is autumn, 

 the sickly season for squirrels and birds. 

 " The law is off," and the gun is loaded to 

 kill you. Take a friend's advice, and fight 

 shy of everything that walks upright " in the 

 image of God." 



Yonder round-topped sweet-birch tree is 

 one of October's masterpieces ; a sheaf of 

 yellow leaves with the sun on them. How 

 they shine ! Yet it is not so much they as 

 the sunlight. Nay, it is both. Let the 

 leaves have the honor that belongs to them. 

 In a week they will all be under foot. To- 

 day they are bright as the sun, and airy and 

 frolicsome as so many butterflies. Blessed 

 are my eyes that see them. And look ! how 

 the light (what a painter it is !) glorifies the 

 lower trunk of the white oak just beyond. 

 The furrowed gray bark is so perfect a piece 

 of absolute beauty that, if it were framed 

 and set up in a gallery, the crowd or the 

 few that are better than a crowd would 

 be always before it. So cheap and universal 

 are visual delights, so little dependent upon 



